European Forestry Pulse #80 🌲

Hello,

Everyone talks about where Europe's wood goes for construction. For pulp. For carbon markets. For biochar.

Almost nobody talks about who actually burns it.

The State of Europe's Forests 2025 report, published in March, has the answer. It's not the answer most people expect.

Let me show you what it means for your forest.

Here's what's moving European forestry this week:

On April 14, FOREST EUROPE published its newsletter. Buried inside was a quiet finding from the State of Europe's Forests 2025 report (SoEF 2025).

The average European burns about 0.3 tonnes of dry wood per year for energy.

A Northern European burns nearly 1.5 tonnes.

That's five times the European average.

Now the twist.

Per capita wood energy use is declining across Europe. Not rising. Not stable. Declining.

Energy systems are shifting. Efficiency is improving. Policy priorities are changing. Wood heat is losing ground to other renewables, even while staying strategically important.

The headline number hides something important.

In Northern Europe, only 10% of wood energy comes from direct wood fibres. That means roundwood, firewood, fuelwood cut specifically for burning.

The European average is 22%.

What's the difference? Residues.

Northern European wood energy runs mostly on sawmill leftovers, bark, pulp-mill black liquor, and forest harvest residues. The lumber industry feeds the heat industry. Both feed each other.

That makes Northern wood energy a circular bioeconomy by necessity, not by ideology. There's nowhere else for the leftovers to go.

Not everyone agrees the SoEF 2025 report is the final word.

Fern, a Brussels-based forest policy NGO, published a critique in April. They argue European forests are poorly monitored, harvest levels are high even as tree growth slows, and some SoEF indicators are too delayed to guide action.

They have a point. And that point is a problem AND an opportunity.

The problem: if you treat SoEF data as gospel, you miss what's changing between five-year reports.

The opportunity: every time industry associations, policymakers, and investors reference SoEF numbers, those numbers shape decisions worth billions. Better data — faster, more local, more granular — is one of the biggest unmet needs in European forest intelligence.

That's exactly the gap ForestryBrief is built to fill.

The 5× gap isn't a statistical curiosity. It shapes three different wood-owner realities across Europe.

Nordic residue suppliers. If you sell to Södra, Stora Enso, Metsä or any major integrated player, your residues have a reliable heat buyer. That's structural. But rising efficiency at mills means residue volumes per m³ processed are shrinking. Watch your by-product value.

Central European log sellers. If your revenue comes from sawlogs in Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechia or Slovakia, wood energy is not your primary market. Your buyer is the sawmill. EFP #79 showed German sawmills trying and failing to push log prices down. That pressure comes from construction demand, not from heat. Your market signal sits in construction.

Southern firewood economies. In Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and much of the Balkans, wood energy still goes heavily into household firewood. These are the 22% markets. If you own forest here, your direct-wood-fibre buyer is domestic, local, and price-sensitive to regional weather. Watch winter.

EFP #79 covered Fibre Excellence in France collapsing partly because of a CRE5 biomass tariff dispute. That was a supply-side story.

The SoEF per-capita finding is a demand-side story.

Both point at the same structural fact: wood energy economics in Europe are thinner than policy assumes. Per capita demand is declining. Tariff disputes are intensifying. Plants that bet on biomass face real pressure.

Butterfly Effect Issue #2 — "Energy" — goes deeper on this cascade. It publishes in May. Watch this space. Sources: FOREST EUROPE Newsletter 2/2026 | SoEF 2025 full report (PDF) | Fern critique: SoEF 2025 — Poorly monitored, managed and used

Sweden's state forest company publishes its Q1 2026 interim report at 14:00 CET today, Thursday 23 April. It will be the first 2026 numbers from Sweden's largest forest owner.

Why it matters now: Sveaskog ended full-year 2025 with roughly SEK 10.9 billion net profit (covered in EFP #63). Since then, Storm Dave dropped 2 million m³ of windthrow on southern Sweden, Mellanskog cut prices five times since autumn 2025, and German sawmills failed to push log prices down.

Three numbers to watch in the release:

The takeaway: If Sveaskog holds Q1 2025's pace, the forest-owner winning streak has absorbed Storm Dave. If operating profit slips meaningfully, the physical and policy pressure we covered in EFP #79 is reaching the biggest Nordic owner. Either signal matters. Source: Sveaskog press page — Q1 2026 interim report publishes at 14:00 CET today (pattern from Q1 2025: 23 April 2025, 14:00 CET)

Galicia's regional government (the Xunta) has received 226 applications for its new post-harvest reforestation grant. The deadline was extended to May 7 after technical clarifications.

The money: €8.483 million total for 2026 and 2027. €6.6 million for conifers, €1.48 million for non-poplar broadleaves, €400,000 for poplar. Co-financed 60% by EAFRD, 12% by Spain's agriculture ministry, 28% by the Xunta.

The innovation: Most European reforestation grants fund new afforestation — planting forest where there was none. Galicia's scheme funds replanting of land that was just harvested. The theory: keep the wood cycle turning without losing canopy coverage.

Per-hectare rates: Up to €3,691.67 per hectare for conifer plantings at 1,300+ stems/ha. Broadleaf and poplar modules follow separate tables.

The takeaway: Iberian forestry is re-engineering its subsidy logic around the harvest cycle, not around greenfield planting. Watch whether other EU regions adopt similar instruments under their CAP Strategic Plans. Sources: Xunta de Galicia press release | DOG official call text (co-financing ratios and module rates published in the Diario Oficial de Galicia)

Thuringia's state government announced a new Kompetenzzentrum Holzbau und nachwachsende Rohstoffe (KHoR — Competence Centre for Timber Construction and Renewable Raw Materials) in Suhl-Nord on April 14. Funding: approximately €10 million across 2026 and 2027.

The goal: Build the full value chain — saw to wall — under one roof. The centre will focus on serial modular construction, underused hardwoods, and regional wood value chains.

Who's involved: Institut für Angewandte Bauforschung Weimar (IAB), the Holz-21-regio alliance, and FH Erfurt (Prof. Erik Findeisen's chair covers forest use and timber market economics).

The real story: Infrastructure Minister Steffen Schütz pointed out that Thuringian wood currently gets shipped to Austria for processing. His ambition is that timber construction becomes the new normal in Thuringia. He also noted 70% of wood harvested in Thuringia is processed in Thuringia.

The Big Story link: Germany's per-capita wood energy use is declining. Its per-capita wood construction demand is rising. Thuringia wants to catch that wave domestically — not export raw material to Austrian CLT plants and import finished panels back. Source: Holz-Zentralblatt

Sachsenforst, Saxony's state forestry enterprise, will plant more than 5 million young trees in 2026. Planting area: roughly 1,310 hectares. Total state investment: €15.6 million.

The mix: About 72% broadleaves. Beech, sessile oak and pedunculate oak lead the list. On the conifer side, silver fir plays the main role. Thirty-four different tree and shrub species in total.

The hidden problem: Oak seed supply is short. Regional coverage from Sachsen-fernsehen flags both drought stress and Saatgutmangel — seed shortage — as active brakes on Saxony's 2026 afforestation push. The underlying drivers (repeated drought years, hard frost damage to seed-bearing oak stands) are well-documented in earlier Sachsenforst reporting.

Why it matters: Every European forest climate-adaptation plan assumes oak seeds will be available when needed. They aren't, at least not in the quantities Saxony needs. Seed stands, seed orchards, and cross-border seed trade become strategic assets.

The takeaway: Climate-resilient forestry isn't just about choosing the right tree species. It's about securing the supply of seed, roots, and labour to plant them. Saxony committed €15.6 million for 5 million trees. If the oak seed isn't there, those aren't oak forests. Sources: Volksstimme (dpa) | Sachsen-fernsehen

Download the SoEF 2025 report and read Chapter 6.

Chapter 6 covers wood consumption, trade, and socio-economic indicators. It's where today's Big Story numbers came from. Read it.

Three practical reasons:

Link: SoEF 2025 full PDF

Read the primary source. Everyone else will rely on someone else's summary. That's your edge.

The next time someone asks why you cut trees, you'll have thirty seconds to answer.

Right now — what do you say?

If the answer isn't ready, you need this Playbook.

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Until Tomorrow!

Wish you all the best: Peter

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